“Peace, prosperity, liberty and morals
have an intimate connection.”

- Thomas Jefferson

The Night Writer is moving to a new home! The new digs aren't quite finished yet, but "the first family of Minnesota blogging" is making the move anyway. The Reverend Mother, Tiger Lilly, Mall Diva (and new contributor The Son@Night) and I are now camping out here, or you can type http://thenightwriterblog.com into your browser.

See you in the new digs!

Ciao for now!

It's been a busy week and it's affected my blogging mojo a bit. Fortunately other family members (including new ones) have taken up some of the slack. Earlier this week I wrestled down all but the smallest remaining details for our trip to Spain; specifically how we are going to get from Madrid to Barcelona and back. Amazingly, to go by high-speed rail costs twice as much as flying, though both take about the same amount of time when you factor in transit from the airport to the city centers. Renting a car is a bit cheaper than flying, but adding the cost of gas and the hassle of driving in strange cities it's almost a push. Not to mention that going by car takes 6 to 8 hours as opposed to one and a half. So that was educational.

Last night and tonight, though, I've been working on my message for Inside Outfitters this weekend. Years ago the Mall Diva bought me a tee-shirt for Fathers' Day that read, "This is what a cool dad looks like." I'm going to wear that shirt and start my message roughlywhere the group left off in March as we talk about how men who grew up without a father have a harder time grasping the concept of a "Father God", especially when it comes to receiving blessings and correction. Put another way, they have a harder time receiving love.

Usually when I speak to this group (which includes a number of guys in various stages of rehab) I teach on faith with an eye toward creating a sense or picture of hope. My objective this week will be to describe the characteristics of the Father, hopefully in a way that we can easily grasp it. Of course, there is no way to do this without demonstrating — or at least trying to describe — love. We were able to demonstrate it a little in March; now as I try to describe the relationship between faith, hope and love I come across (yet again) the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, this time from one of his sermons (emphasis mine):

Faith and hope remain. Let us not think that we can have love without faith and without hope! Love without faith is like a river without a source. That would mean we could have love without Christ. Faith alone justifies us before God. Hope directs our attention to the end. Love perfects.

Yes, a very educational week, indeed.

Almost every morning I walk for exercise. It's enjoyable to walk when it's still early. The air smells wonderful, there's not a great deal of traffic (when is there a lot of traffic in SSP?), and it makes a peaceful start to my day. Some days I see interesting things. My route occasionally takes me through two cemeteries which are located across the street from each other. This morning I saw two noteworthy tombstones:



What happened here?
Did he disappear? Did he marry someone else and is now buried beside that person? Is he still alive?

How about this?



What does it say? What language is this? This guy didn't live long, but he had an interesting name. Small consolation.

Then I found a folding knife, the kind that TL favors, down by Vets field. I picked it up and took it with me but I got to thinking how I didn't really care to have it and TL has enough knives, in my opinion. The person it belongs to might come looking for it and the only chance they have of getting it back is if it stays where they dropped it. I turned aound and put it back where it had been. Hopefully, everyone else will leave it there as well and the owner will find it again.

That's the report from today's walk. Tune in again for an occasional, exciting walk report.

The following is a question and answer from an interview with Gloria Steinem in the Star Tribune this morning.

Is the recession America is now experiencing disproportionately affecting women?

It obviously is.

Now let's take a look at that old conservative rag, the New York Times.

The proportion of women who are working has changed very little since the recession started. But a full 82 percent of the job losses have befallen men, who are heavily represented in distressed industries like manufacturing and construction. Women tend to be employed in areas like education and health care, which are less sensitive to economic ups and downs, and in jobs that allow more time for child care and other domestic work.

There appears to be a credibility gap. Just what would it take for Gloria Steinem to admit that women aren't victims in need of her brand of feminism? When women are still "disproportionately affected" by this economic downturn when men are absorbing 80% of the layoffs this year, I think it becomes clear that there is nothing in the world that would convince her. Or rather, maybe she's not actually interested in equality for men and women so much as she is in pushing her own political agenda?

Of course this is an exercise in the obvious and will surprise no one. But somehow this type of thinking, that women still have a long way to go to achieve equality, still gets trotted out year after year. We've still got to fix rampant sexism! When will we finally overcome this problem? Only when it is politically expedient to let go of it.

While this issue is certainly important, the assumption that Gloria Steinem and so many adopt and how society learns to view this assumption is far more important. The basic assumption is this, that society is perfectible if only we try hard enough and are willing to do what is necessary. That almost sounds noble. But it isn't. Because "what is necessary" always requires more of your freedom and more of your funding. The noble goal always remains just out of reach.

This type of positivist thinking was prevalent prior to the world wars, as modern society seemed on an inexorable march of progress. As standards of living rose, life spans stretched, and human capabilities shot through the roof, only curmudgeons could possibly deny that societal perfection was a rational goal. The only question was how we might achieve it. The human cruelty of the world wars disabused some of this notion, and the spectacular failure of communism made it even clearer. But it remains a very enticing thought. And it remains the foundation of modern liberalism.

But positivist thinking is bankrupt. Society is not perfectible and humans certainly are not. Every time we try another experiment to reach the noble goal, "unforeseen consequences" swoop down and saddle us with more problems. Social Security, welfare, the war of drugs, etc... are all examples of this. They sound like great ideas, but they cost more than advertised and they work worse. Quick, name a government program that costs less than envisioned and works better! It just doesn't happen. Yet many persevere in the quest for societal perfection.

That is where we are at today. We elected a leader who campaigned on quixotic positivism. Yes we can! Alas, the "unforeseen consequences" are licking their chops just offstage. Our president, like Steinem, wants to point us to unreachable goals couched in warm sentiment. But it isn't about reaching the goals, because any fool knows that perfection can't happen this side of Nadia Comaneci, it is about power and pushing a political agenda.

Beware of noble goals coming out of the halls of government. This world does not know perfect and anyone pushing it is either a deceiver or deceived.

I told Faith many months ago I would grow my hair out for her wedding. Now that that's over and they've returned:



I am a happy sponge.

Before (bwahahahahaaa!):


After:

^
|
| Happy sponge.

Ciao for now!

In the previous post King David wonders, "I hope they brought back some marmite with them; I know Ben always spoke highly of it and how much he loved it. (or did that get confiscated at the airport as a banned substance[?])"

He really hit a nerve with that question. You see, eight days ago I was traumatized by airport security at London Heathrow. In preparing for our trip back from the old country Faith and I had carefully packed our various items in two suitcases and two carry-ons so as to maximize efficiency, spread the weight to avoid surcharges, and protect against breakages. For the most part this worked well. Nothing was broken and we didn't have to pay anything extra for heavy suitcases, though they were heavy! But one part of our plan went disastrously wrong.

I passed through the metal detector without causing alarm and was beginning to congratulate Faith that we'd run the gauntlet successfully when a fateful noise rang out "BEEP!" My bag was shoved to one side for inspection. "Fiddlesticks," I thought, "they're going to root about in my bag like truffle seeking pigs." The 'truffle seeking pig' in question was an amiable women in her forties. Upon finding some vacuum sealed jars from the grocery store she apologetically explained that the police state in Britain loved free food and would be requiring mine. "But you can buy some more duty free! The store's right over there."

I passed on the opportunity to replace my purloined items, not least because I was all out of pounds. Then, as we sat and waited for our gate assignment, Faith encouraged me not to be bitter and I knew that she was right. And so I relate this story out of sadness and grief, not anger. I'm sure that some government bureaucrat in London needed another jar of Branston Pickle for his bag lunch. I'm sure it was very tasty.

The big news for us is that Faith and Ben finally got back from their honeymoon yesterday. Of course, there are other things going on in the headlines, but it's hard not to see everything in terms of the kids being back. For example, I'm so happy I'm thinking about turning over some police cars and setting small trees on fire. Nothing shows the world how happy you are like wanton property damage and abuse of authority, I guess. To follow the lead of the Laker fans I suppose we should have rampaged through our neighborhood immediately after the wedding three weeks ago, but I was just too tired.

With a couple fewer mouths to feed the last couple of weeks we've had quite a few leftovers piling up in the refrigerator. This, of course, is just another way Americans are killing the planet with our wastrel ways through excess food accumulating in landfills and producing methane gas that's 20 TIMES WORSE THAN CARBON DIOXIDE! I thought the problem for years has been Americans eat too much, leading to an obesity epidemic, now we're criticized for not cleaning our plates? Oh, if only we didn't live in a functioning economy (for the moment) with an effective infrastructure that efficiently and cost-effectively delivers food to us on a daily basis! Don't worry, I'm sure that within a few years the government will take care of this oversight while also mandating how much and what kinds of food we can buy. I mean, once the goverment takes over health care and we still die too expensively it's only logical they regulate consumption for our own good. Or maybe they'll just let the natural results of their policies run their course: whatever flaws the Soviet Union had, they certainly were never known for letting their wasted food pile up into methane-producing heaps.

Anyway, now that Ben's back there is sure to be fewer left-overs, and the cattle industry can breathe a sigh of relief after demand took a brief dip in June. To be honest, though, I don't know how much our household is actually contributing to the food piles in the landfill. I don't recall ever throwing out any pizza or half a bag of Fritos. Our policy is simply that we will never throw good food away. We merely wrap it and put it in the refrigerator until it becomes bad food, and then we throw it away.

As for the riots in Iran, I guess they're just upset that Faith and Ben decided not to visit there as part of their world-wide, whirlwind honeymmoon tour.

Along with planning for our trip I'm also trying to get up to speed on the news and politics in Spain before we go over there. The New York Times maintains an on-line news page on the country that is a handy reference. Allow me to excerpt three of the top stories for your consideration; I've bold-faced some words for emphasis, but this post is just snapshots, not analyses. I don't have the time or the historical context to attempt an analyses at this point, but I do have enough intellect and curiosity to file these under, "Things that make you go, 'Hmmmm.'"

The first article summarizes the March, 2008 electoral victory of the Socialist Party and PM José Luis Zapatero, which was first elected in 2004:

Spain’s governing Socialists triumphed in elections held in March 2008, giving Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero a fresh mandate to pursue his agenda of sweeping social, cultural and political liberalization.

Despite a bitterly fought campaign, the outcome seemed to endorse some of Mr. Zapatero’s boldest decisions, including the withdrawal of Spain’s troops from Iraq, the granting of more autonomy to Spain’s rebellious regions, simplified divorce and the legalization of homosexual marriage.

(Read more of the excerpt.)

Mr. Zapatero’s Socialist party defeated the conservative Popular Party in a rematch of the bitter contest four years ago between Mr. Zapatero and Mariano Rajoy, the head of the Popular Party. It was then that Mr. Zapatero was unexpectedly swept into power after Spaniards delivered a message of disapproval and anger to the conservative government.

(hide)

Among the bold decisions includes a head-on conflict with the Catholic Church on abortion.

Spain Steps Into Battle With Itself on Abortion
By VICTORIA BURNETT
MADRID — One day last month, Sister María Victoria Vindel gave her 15-year-old students a shockingly graphic lecture on reproductive health: PowerPoint slides of dismembered and disfigured fetuses interspersed with biblical quotations and pictures of a grinning José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain’s prime minister.

“They laugh while many innocent children will die,” one of the captions read. The presentation ended with the message, “No to abortion, yes to life!”

Sister Vindel’s class at Purísima Concepción y Santa María Micaela, a parochial school in Logroño in northern Spain, is the most controversial episode yet in an increasingly contentious debate about Mr. Zapatero’s plans to ease Spain’s restrictive abortion law.

The class was described by the mother of a student, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of possible repercussions for her child, and by Inmaculada Ortega, a Socialist lawmaker who spoke to several students and their parents.

The school, where Sister Vindel is headmistress, refused to comment on the slide show, which appeared to be downloaded from the Internet. The regional government, run by the opposition Popular Party, sent inspectors to the school, a Catholic institution that is financed partly by the state and partly by the parents. The government called the presentation “inappropriate” and said that it could constitute “moral aggression.”

Since he became prime minister in 2004, Mr. Zapatero has pushed an ambitious series of reforms, prying the social fabric of Spain from the centuries-old grip of the Roman Catholic Church. The Socialist government has legalized gay marriage, eased divorce law and expanded the rights of transsexuals.

(Read more of the excerpt.)

Now Mr. Zapatero has ventured onto even more incendiary social terrain, the divide over abortion; and if he was looking for a battle, he found one. As Spain celebrated Holy Week, the clergy rolled out a vigorous protest from pulpits, billboards and the hooded ranks of traditional Easter processions.

Abortion is technically a crime in Spain, though a law introduced in 1985, 10 years after Franco’s death, permits abortions under certain circumstances. In practice, however, abortions are widely available because doctors cite a mental health exception.

The current law allows terminations in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy only in cases of rape and in the first 22 weeks in cases of congenital disorder. However, a woman can abort at any time if her mental or physical health is at risk — an exception cited in about 97 percent of abortions in Spain, according to Empar Pineda, spokeswoman for the Spanish Association of Accredited Abortion Clinics.

(hide)

I'm not up on my history of the Catholic Church's prior relationship with the Socialists or Zapatero, but in Central and South America the Church has been known to support and endorse Socialist uprisings and candidates. I wonder if it has been happy with the resulting social conditions? Something to look into.

Leaving aside the spiritual, it appears that Zapatero may also have some issues with the temporal:

Spain’s Falling Prices Fuel Deflation Fears in Europe
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ

VALENCIA, Spain — Faced with plunging orders, merchants across this recession-wracked country are starting to do something that many of them have never done: cut retail prices.

Prices dipped everywhere, from restaurants and fashion retailers to pharmacies and supermarkets in March. Hoping to increase sales, Fernando Maestre reduced prices by a third on the video intercoms his company makes for homes and apartment buildings. But that has not helped, so, along with many other Spanish employers, he is continuing to fire workers.

The nation’s jobless rate, already a painful 15.5 percent, could soon reach 20 percent, a troubling number for a major industrialized country. (Ya think? Later on the article also includes this stat: The jobless rate for those under 25 is at a Depression-like level of 31.8 percent, the highest among the 27 nations of the European Union. NW)

With the combination of rising unemployment and falling prices, economists fear Spain may be in the early grip of deflation, a hallmark of both the Great Depression and Japan’s lost decade of the 1990s, and a major concern since the financial crisis went global last year.

Deflation can result in a downward spiral that can be difficult to reverse. As unemployment rises sharply and consumers cut spending, companies cut prices. But if sales do not pick up, then revenue can decline further, forcing more cuts in workers or wages. Mr. Maestre is already contemplating additional job and wage cuts for his 250 employees.

Nowhere is this cycle more evident than in Spain. Last month, it became the first of the 16 nations that use the euro to record a negative inflation rate. The drop, though just 0.1 percent, had not happened since the government began tracking inflation in 1961, and Spanish officials have said prices could keep dropping through the summer.

Some of the decline came as volatile food prices sank; the cost of fish fell 6.2 percent, and sugar was down 5.7 percent. But even prices in normally stable sectors like drugs and medical treatments fell 0.7 percent in March, and there were slight declines in footwear, clothing and prices for household electronics.

“Alarm bells are going off,” said Lorenzo Amor, president of the Association of Autonomous Workers, which represents small businesses and self-employed people. “Economies can recover from deceleration, but it’s harder to recover from a deflationary situation. This could be a catastrophe for the Spanish economy.”

I'm sure we'll try our best to stimulate that economy!

Sorry this is late, I wasn't going as fast as I was here:



Chow for now.

I'm spending my free (and some of my not-so-free) time trying to plot out our itinerary and lodgings in Spain after we finish the one-week Pueblo Ingles program I wrote about earlier. One of the things I've realized is that we'll be there during the annual San Fermin Bull Run in Pamplona. Now I no longer have the legs for it (though I might make a Taco Run), and the Reverend Mother has never had the inclination, but Tiger Lilly on the other hand...



Photo from the About.com Gallery Pamplona Bull Run 2006

Hmmm. Well apparently the Doom Steak will have to wait because the rules say you have to be at least 18 years old in order to run, and she's not old enough. Also, while I don't see any rules expressly limiting the running to men, I also don't see any photos of women among the runners. You know, it strikes me that this is just the kind of stupid event that would appeal to guys and that women simply know better. Nevertheless, if you think you'd like to try it, you should check out these handy, um, tips.

Ok, Mitch posted this earlier today but the firewall at work kept me from watching the video, which is just as well because it really wouldn't do for me to be rolling around on the floor with tears streaming from my eyes right now. People might get the wrong idea.

I guarantee that as you watch this, every now and then you'll fall apart.



Honestly, I thought some of the scenes in the video had to have been added somehow because they were so bizarre, but trust me, the only alterations have been to the vocals. (Ninjas? Yes, ninjas!). And the part in there about having to pee? That looks pretty darn authentic, too, based on what I've seen around my house.

If you lived through the 80s you can consider this video your own personal catharsis.

I was eating my Pop Tarts and reading a story in the Strib this morning when a thought popped into my head about the similarity between a violent, capital crime and violence against capital.

In the story a 17-year-old accused murderer has had charges against him dismissed because the witnesses are afraid to testify against him; one even left the state. Both the accused killer, Ramadan Abdi Shiekh Osman, and the victim, Ahmed Nur Ali, are members of the Somali community; Ali was an Augsburg student volunteering at the community center where the murder took place.

Now witness intimidation and the old self-preservation instinct are nothing new and certainly not unique to a particular ethnic group; it is the foundation of mob rule in any era or community. There's nothing especially unique about this particular story, either: justice is denied, the rule of law is flouted and a likely killer walks the streets. All of this because witnesses have learned a painful lesson and don't believe that law enforcement can protect them from reprisals and have therefore made themselves scarce or recanted their testimony. What may ultimately happen to the community as a result?

Now a neighborhood thug and the bankruptcies of Chrysler and GM — where the senior investors lost their legal standing for recovery by executive fiat — may look as if they are worlds apart, but I started to think about the "lessons" learned by the neighborhood witnesses, and if investors weren't learning the same lessons. That is, you have to depend on your own instincts and resources if you can't depend on the rule of law to look after you and preserve your community (or capital) when the prevailing gang gets to decide right and wrong and reward its friends and abuse its enemies. In the local community you clam up, lie low and even move away to avoid reprisals or becoming a target. In the investor community the equivalent is nearly the same: funds dry up, investors lie low and capital — being a lot more portable than an oppressed family — moves to a better neighborhood with less risk of confiscation.

And the community gets ugly, fast.

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as "bad luck."
— Robert A. Heinlein

And when you're The Night Writer it makes it harder to get your posts done. Actually, what I need are longer days and nights. I've outlined blog ideas on marriage (gay and otherwise) and on abortion and the Tiller slaying but haven't had a chance to complete these to my satisfaction as I handle a busy phase at work, try to finalize travel arrangements for our upcoming trip to Spain, and tonight I'm going down to the Red Wing Correctional Facility for a cottage visit that's part of the preparation for this Sunday's service down there.

I'm also trying to figure out how to move this blog to a new host with better design and a fabulous new logo done by my wife. I had it all just about figured out once but then had to set it aside and now I've got to re-educate myself so I can get my new host and WordPress working together, along with my all my archives. My objective is to make the switch-over before we leave for Spain so that my travel posts will show up on the cool new page.

So if things are spotty here the next few days it is not a sign that I'm losing interest; merely that things are a bit too interesting.

...build a bridge, and GET OVER IT!



Apropos of nothing, just a little philosophy before wading into heavier issues.

Alas, my loneliness is indeed deep. TWO WEEKS UNTIL THEY GET BACK!!!!!

Ciao for now.